First Reformed Trailer | CPH PIX 2018

If you take a close look, there has always been a touch of the stylistic role models such as Dreyer and Bresson in Paul Schrader's otherwise hard-boiled genre films. But this has never been as evident as in 'First Reformed', which is tight, stringent and way out there. An outstanding Ethan Hawke plays a conscientious priest, who is visited by a young woman (Amanda Seyfried), who is worried about her husband, an environmental activist. The priest is only listening to her with half an ear. But when the political fanaticism reverberates in his soul-searching mind, the film explodes into completely unexpected directions. Not that it loses the thread - Schrader lets go of it himself to emphasise a point about the madness of the world and his own confident genre games. It is like an action film directed by Bergman. But the director's name is Schrader, and he has rarely been so good.